Is the Nexus 5 still worth getting?
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The G's a great phone and I'll keep this idea as an option, but if possible, I'd like to try and get something relatively soon, since buying and selling phones is a hassle that I don't want to have to deal with if I don't have to. Like I said, willing to spend around $500 max.
I looked at the Nexus 5 when I was researching phones. I also looked at the HTC One M8. For me the reason I went with the S5, was the removable battery and the memory expansion. For me the ability to replace the battery, or get an after market extended battery are what convinced me to get it.
The Nexus 5 also seemed to break easily when dropped, where as the S5 seemed a bit more rugged. The water resistance was also a big selling point for me. I work construction and am outside most of the time.
At this point, it all depends on what you want, but I wou;d reccomend the S5.
The Nexus 5 also seemed to break easily when dropped, where as the S5 seemed a bit more rugged. The water resistance was also a big selling point for me. I work construction and am outside most of the time.
At this point, it all depends on what you want, but I wou;d reccomend the S5.
I have mixed feelings about the Oneplus One and the Find 7, but they should help drive innovation and cost controls in the major brand market. I guess they join the N5 on that battlefront :3
I kept my last main phone for three years, what did you have that was so awful?
What special features and/or gimmicks are you hoping for here? Is there a killing factor that drives you towards a phone? Away from a phone? The N5 is good but it has weaknesses, without knowing what you need I hesitate to recommend it.
A lot of non-galaxy devices can be had new in box or from Swappa for under $400. For example scoring a G2 sold by someone who bought the G3...that would be a camera and battery upgrade over the N5.
F6....maybe? All I recall about F series is the F3 launching well and then gradually making a pile of enemies because it was a poorly set up 4GB phone...no staying power after a few months.
Thanks very much for your well reasoned endorsement.
I didn't put a lot of effort into choosing my phone and I was stuck with a piece of junk that I couldn't get rid of.
As for what I'm looking for, I guess a phone that's balanced on most fronts. Good screen, good camera, battery to last me throughout the day, good performance, and a great software experience (as in the skin out of the box is bearable or is close to stock Android or it has a good selection of custom roms, etc.), essentially a well balanced phone.
N5 is not especially known for a superior camera or battery, but it seems plenty of owners do just fine with what it's got. It does have a tolerable hi rez screen, and is fast/well documented/customizable and ships with 'Android' as developed by Google.
I very much like my G Flex, everything including the 720p screen but the camera could be even better. Sadly there is no G Pro 2 shipping on American carriers I think. G2 is smaller, 1080p, and there's a couple mods on XDA if you dislike stock (I thought Flex stock was faster and better looking in store). So the G2 is decent, longer battery than G3 with higher contrast screen and a camera that's like 90% or so of what the G3's can do.
M8 would be next on my list, good speakers and battery. The camera is not print quality but has good color and contrast and decent low light shots, great quality for social media sharing.
S5 has better camera, weaker battery but Ultra Power Saver works well, however some of the gimmicks like heart monitor are essentially broken...you can do the battery yourself and it is mildly water resistant.
Note 3 I do not suggest at this time.
Oneplus One may actually be a good pick but I have not had time with one yet. Oppo Find 7 and 7a I probably do not recommend, although the camera *is* novel.
worldspy99
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- Oct 15, 2013
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You can pick up 16GB ones for about $300 on Swappa and 32GB ones for $350 which are almost new, save a ton of money compared to the Play store. Craigslist is also a good source for picking these up for cheap. You might want to get a Moto X as well since these are quite cheap on CL.
worldspy99
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Might want to pick up a Moto X on CL for about $200, unlock it (various services available) and hold on to your extra $200 for a new Nexus 6.
Alternately, you can pick up 16GB ones for about $300 on Swappa and 32GB ones for $350 which are almost new, save a ton of money compared to the Play store. Craigslist is also a good source for picking these up for cheap.
The N5 is a pretty nice phone for the money. The latest camera update takes care of most of the gripes. There is an article on AndroidCentral which shows side by side comparison of the N5 camera vs the S5 camera and the N5 camera holds up pretty well.
Good luck with the N5!
I'm not sure what you mean by that. If you put the latest phone up against the N5, you won't notice any difference in real world usage.
The next big leap in phones is going to be 8-core/3-4gb ram/64bit Android. Everything that came out after the Nexus 5 is just slightly "faster" spec wise, but isn't that much better. Get a Nexus 4 (I bought one new yesterday for $215 on ebay) and it will serve you well until the 8-core phones come out early next year.
The Nexus 5 camera is hugely underrated. It is one of the top 5 cameras on Android right now...maybe one of the top 3. definitely better than the HTC one and Moto X, and better lowlight than the S5. The G2 and G3 are the only cameras I would say are better in every way.
Reviewers dumped on the Nexus 5 camera early on, so people are mostly repeating what those reviewers said. But in side-by-side comparisons the nexus 5 camera is clearly better than most of the competition.
Nexus 5 has a better camera than the One (either of them)...not only higher resolution, but better quality. The M8 images look washed out to me.
Yeah, you'd think so...but...
Oneplus is potentially better than the Nexus...right now it's not. I am confident they will eventually fix it's problems in updates. But the camera does not have real OIS (it is software based, not hardware based like the nexus).
The main reason to get an S5 is SD expansion and water proofing. It also has the best display of any phone out right now. Even better than the iPhones too.
The main reason to get an HTC One is for the speakers, and the case design.
The main reason to get a Moto X is for the touchless controls and case customization.
But if I was going to get a Non-Nexus phone right now, my first choice would be the G3 or G2. It has everything the nexus does and better, except for the vanilla OS.
The main reason to get an HTC One is for the speakers, and the case design.
The main reason to get a Moto X is for the touchless controls and case customization.
But if I was going to get a Non-Nexus phone right now, my first choice would be the G3 or G2. It has everything the nexus does and better, except for the vanilla OS.
LeoRex
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- Nov 21, 2012
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The ONLY thing that I would say that the Nexus 5 is behind the current crop of 'flagships' is the battery. It's not small, I'd call it middling... Sure, I would have loved a 3000mah in there, but then it'd be a little bit bigger and heavier.
Camera takes good pics.... for some reason, my wife has issues focusing on hers, but I think that's a user problem.
Performance-wise, it is still right there with anything available now...
I'd say that the only phone that would be able to compete, in terms of price and performance, is the OnePlus.... but good luck getting one of those.... that phone's rollout has been an unmitigated disaster.
Camera takes good pics.... for some reason, my wife has issues focusing on hers, but I think that's a user problem.
Performance-wise, it is still right there with anything available now...
I'd say that the only phone that would be able to compete, in terms of price and performance, is the OnePlus.... but good luck getting one of those.... that phone's rollout has been an unmitigated disaster.
After digging around and checking updated comparisons, I do agree the N5 camera is much improved. It is no longer pig-slow and the pictures themselves are better. A good denoising filter too. I strongly dislike the lack of pop in bright light and the exceeding trend to lens flaring at night, but honestly in auto mode it needs less overriding than most cel cameras.
When manual adjustment comes in, the G2/Pro 2/G3 are still mostly on top. But the rest of the playing field gets muddy FAST. Saved camera profiles are a very nice trick for the M8 and emphasize its social-network-quality photos in the best light (sic) possible. Makes it a great phone for theme park trips, GREAT.
Note 3 is probably still Samsung's best camera, in some ways even their S3 does not lose to the newer phones when you're just doing a lot of MMS...but for print I think S4, S5, Note 3.
N5 with manual tweaking is pretty good. The outdoors issue comes from UV filtering, you can even buy a UV filter for cameras that tend to wash out in daylight. N5 camera filters away most of the washout effect, but it overly reduces the 'pop' of reflected light and removes a little too much visible blue light. Makes daylight pictures drab and warm. At night the accuracy and speed are now pretty good. The aforementioned lensing bothers me though.
I wish the ISO modes on more of these phones were better tested, even my G Flex has a far better ISO mode than my Sony compact. This matters because like I said before, manual settings muddy the waters.
That N5/S5 comparison on Android Central freely swapped between HDR and non HDR without marking which was which. It also casually mentioned easily increasing brightness (a full +1.0!!) on the N5, without mentioning the S5 could easily dim say -0.2 to take the edge off. No comparison of what those changes actually do to the same shot either, so most of the article was useless beyond "S5 for daylight but N5 for night". And not even ONE flash photo test? Bahhh.
I am also seeing a dearth of camera retrospectives with boating or fireworks samples. Reviewers just don't take the kind of pictures that real users would, same as most of their other priorities miss the mark completely once a device hits the water. Like the Tab 3 7.0 got trashed, but in the market it has often 4.5/5 or so with thousands of buyer ratings. "Good screen and battery life, portable, sturdy, cheap".
Anyways to the OP, ignore my aspersions of thr N5 camera. It's been fixed, and especially low light is very competitive without flash thanks to OIS working properly. BUT if there is a strong point light in the background, make sure it didn't lensflare across someone's face in the picture.
What does this leave us with then? N5 and G2? Either should be able to be bought outright for less than $400. And the M8 is still in the running, especially if you don't zoom and don't print...it has good color/pop and fast presets.
Oh my GOODNESS that is disingenuous. Within their network of sites, these guys are posting their camera roundups only to the portal for whichever device did better. So the iPhone vs Lumia went on the WP site, iPhone vs S5 and M8 went on iMore (and some of the worst butchered M8 samples I have seen, I don't personally like it and I KNOW it's not that bad from all the samples I've seen). The all-Android retrospective for N5 landed here of course, albeit strangely missing both the G2 and the G3 and again with a testing regimen that seems dubious.
There is no inbetween here, either shoot all auto or include more samples from each phone, and do not just post it to the platform site of the 'winner'. But I'll admit it's still better than the lazy jerk sites that compare outdoor shots taken days or weeks apart (looking at *you* TrustedReviews).
There is no inbetween here, either shoot all auto or include more samples from each phone, and do not just post it to the platform site of the 'winner'. But I'll admit it's still better than the lazy jerk sites that compare outdoor shots taken days or weeks apart (looking at *you* TrustedReviews).
Feel free to post other comparisons if you want. All the comparisons I have seen so far have been comparable to this.
I prefer seeing actual samples, since a lot of opinion on the internet seems to be based on other opinions. I want to see the products myself so I can make my own judgement. In my experience so far, the M8 camera is not that impressive (at least quality wise). The Moto X even less so.
For me, I want to see what the achievable quality is on each phone. I don't care if I have to mess with settings to get it. Once optimized, the Nexus 5 has a great camera. Much better than most people seem to think it is.
The Nexus 5 camera thread has many examples. - http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...nexus-5-camera-photos-videos-thoughts-18.html
The lowlight is the best I have seen on any Android phone so far, except the G2. These are shots I took downtown...they are not altered or enhanced.
The OIS is responsible for such low noise in lowlight shots. You simply can't get that in other cameras without it. No matter how many MP you pump into the sensor.
In fact I mostly agree with you. One of the -Arena sites tries to post comparable images taken in a controlled environment, but their usefulness is not great in practice. NoteBookCheck tends to do a great job on their occasional phone review, including screen and camera analysis and including reference shots from a digital compact camera. M8 camera while not amazing does not tend to UNDERexpose outdoor shots in my limited experience, if anything it is normally faulted for giving a blown out overglow....my tests shots with one just outside a Sprint store needed a slight reduction of brightness.
Your examples look good.
....and I nearly lost another topic reply to Puff the Magic Lag Bar. That thing is just murdering all of my mobile devices.
Thankfully my N5 is working fine after going thru the washing machine! Theres bubbles behind the screen not sure and the speaker is not as loud but I used the gps and made calls today no problem. I think my battery might be bad tho, phone overheats sometimes and gives off a sweet smell from back side. When i took it apart I recall seeing the battery kind of puffed up from the back, as if there was air bubbles or something, ordered what I hope is a legit OEM one from ebay and hope to be problem free.
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